|> When TauMetric first wrote their compiler, they put a lot of effort into
|> having good error messages. But customers complained bitterly and
|> demanded that the error messages be just like other UNIX compilers. A
|> quote from someone at TauMetric (I assume Mike Ball): "These [error]
|> messages are crude, giving only file name and line number, but they seem
|> to be what a lot of the UNIX and MSDOS hackers want. They have written
|> emacs (or brief) macros to parse these messages and move the cursor around
|> in the editor."

It should be possible to serve both needs, giving users all of the
information they want, *and* providing the necessary keywords for
editor macros.

I like verbose error messages, but it is equally important that the
error messages contain the filename, the line number, and some sort of
keyword ("error" ?) for automated processing. (This last point is
regrettably ignored by a number of compilers.)
--
James Kanze email: kanze@us-es.sel.de
GABI Software, Sarl., 8 rue du Faisan, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
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